Help:Concepts, collections, and schemes

On this system it is possible to define “concepts”. We use concept in the sense of SKOS “as an idea or notion; a unit of thought.” It is possible to describe concepts with additional skos properties, but it is not necessary to start with that. For example, it is possible to define whether a concept is a class or a property.

Individual concepts can be grouped by two methods:

If the concepts are carefully reviewed and published in a versioned and authored standard, they can be assigned to a “scheme”.

For all other groupings of concepts “concepts collections” are available. For example, if a standard lists some concepts as “core”, others as “extensions”, or if the concepts are grouped under subheadings, these are typically expressed as concept collections.

Term versus Concept

Note: we have chosen to use the words “term” and “concept” interchangeably here although, strictly, the unit in the vocabulary is a concept to which many labels/terms can be applied, e.g., a single concept can have preferred labels in different languages and while the label/term thus changes, the underlying concept stays the same. For further explanation see: Information Standards Quarterly by Clarke & Zeng (2012).